Team Ranking: November 2020
We have updated our Global team ranking for November 2020.
November was yet another month of non-stop online action, with multiple tournaments being held across the globe. Despite the lack of elite teams, Flashpoint 2 had its fair share of headlines on account of its whopping $1 million prize pool and the investment that the founding organisations have made in the project. In the end, Virtus.pro claimed the first prize of $500,000 after beating OG in a grand final between two non-partners.
Heroic were unable to keep their good form in November and moved down two places to third following a series of 5th-8th place finishes over the course of the month. They were dethroned by IEM Beijing-Haidian Europe champions Vitality, with another Danish team, Astralis, hot on the Frenchmen's heels after winning DreamHack Masters Winter.
Both tournaments included other regions, with the same teams coming out on top: Renegades continued their hegemony in Oceania, while Chaos and ViCi were crowned champions in North America and Asia, respectively.
November was a month to forget for the two biggest North American teams, Evil Geniuses and Liquid, who suffered massive slides. ENCE also nosedived and are out of the top 30 for the first time since May 2018 following some roster changes.
Here's a summary of our ranking for new readers:
Our team ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last two months, and performance in recent events in the last 3 months.
Each team is required to have a three-man core in order to retain their points. Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, online results, which previously had a minimal effect, now carry more weight as they are also included in the 'Achievements' and 'Recent Events' sub-categories.
Below is the current top 30 table as of December 7, which goes more in-depth into how the points are distributed — or you can check our special page, where you will be able to find the latest, weekly version of our ranking. You can see the lineup for each team by hovering over their name in the table.
POINTS
Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of November 2.
Vitality retake the crown after IEM success
Vitality returned to the top position in the world rankings on the back of a first-place finish in IEM Beijing-Haidian Europe, beating teams like Heroic, Complexity and Natus Vincere en route to the trophy. The French team claimed a much-needed title that had long escaped them after they had lost their previous four finals in 2020 (two against Heroic and one against each of BIG and Complexity).
For the first time, Vitality will spend a full month sitting at No.1 after their previous reign was curtailed after three weeks. There's still a comfortable gap over second-placed Astralis, who took advantage of the Frenchmen's absence from DreamHack Masters Winter to gain precious points and move up in the table, but they will be feeling some pressure heading into the BLAST Premier Falls Finals and the IEM Global Challenge.
The final two tournaments of the year will decide who will sit on the throne at the turn of the year. Regardless of what happens, this season has been a huge success for Vitality, who are setting a new standard in terms of using expanded rosters.
EG in hot water
Evil Geniuses will go down as one of the losers of this tournament season. There had been some worrying signs that this team would struggle a bit once they landed in Europe, but it was hard to imagine that they would go out of the BLAST Premier Fall Series after just two matches.
EG, who looked disjointed and off the pace against OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas, returned to North America hoping to recapture some magic before the final stretch of the season, but instead they found themselves in even deeper water as they were surprised by Chaos in the semi-finals of IEM Beijing-Haidian. To make matters worse, they were forced to skip their last three tournaments of the year - BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, DreamHack Masters Winter and the IEM Global Challenge - due to what was described as "COVID-19-related travel restrictions".
It has been just over two weeks since EG played their last official match, and fans will have to wait until next year to watch the team in action again. This is the lowest rank for the core since May 2018, when Damian "daps" Steele and Jacob "FugLy" Medina were still in the lineup, and with no matches in sight, the team will certainly slip even further in the weeks to come.
mousesports return to the top 10
Six months later, MOUZ are back in the top 10 following a second-place finish in DreamHack Masters Winter. The international team had made a strong impression in the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, and they proved their doubters wrong in the following tournament as they beat Liquid, GODSENT (twice) and Cloud9 before being denied by Astralis in a best-of-five final.
Finn "karrigan" Andersen has reasons to smile again. After losing one of his most impactful players in Özgür "woxic" Eker, the Danish tactician has managed to create a system that is getting the most of his players again. Aurimas "Bymas" Pipiras looks settled into life in his new team after being unable to play the way he likes while with FaZe, while David "frozen" Čerňanský appears reinvigorated after struggling for form for several months.
MOUZ will be eyeing the top five as they enter the BLAST Premier Fall Finals. But even if they fail to reach that target, it will be impossible not to feel that the final stretch of the year has been a success for the team, especially considering how bleak thinks looked for them between May and September.
Gambit reach new peak after near-undefeated month
After hovering around the top 30 for a year, Gambit have broken through to the top 20 for the first time in the team's history on the back of a massive winning streak, which began at the lower tier in late October and ended earlier this month, in DreamHack Masters Winter, at the hands of Astralis.
In that month-and-a-half-long span, the team formerly known as Gambit Youngsters amassed a string of 19 match victories — 18 series and one best-of-one — and a 38-5 map record as they went undefeated in five consecutive tournaments and made it to the playoffs of DreamHack Masters Winter after beating Cloud9 and Complexity in the group stage.
The Russian squad's new peak is set at No. 17 after their latest feat, and they still have room to grow this year, with MIDNITE Nine to Five 7, DreamHack Open December, and a part of the Vulkan Fight Series left in their calendar before the winter break rolls around.
Cloud9 and MIBR enter top 30 with new teams
The latest ranking update brought good news to Cloud9 and MIBR after their recently-overhauled lineups played their first full month of competition and made a good account of themselves early on, against most people's expectations.
The Brazilians were in action for the first time last month after the legendary organization had opted for an "out with the old, in with the new" approach and replaced the veteran trio of Epitacio "TACO" de Melo, Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo with the much more junior combination of Leonardo "leo_drk" Oliveira, Vinicius "vsm" Moreira, and Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles. The new-look MIBR immediately surprised many with their exuberance, challenging some of the world's best teams to close battles and coming away with some important wins against FURIA, FaZe, and OG.
Cloud9's expensive new roster did not impress at first, failing to live up to the excitement in Flashpoint 2 with a winless exit in the middle of the month. Less than two weeks later, however, the team built around Alex "ALEX" McMeekin started to show their worth and looked much more competitive as they clinched first triumphs against Ninjas in Pyjamas, Complexity, ENCE, and Spirit across the next two events, placing 3rd-4th in the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown and 5th-8th in DreamHack Masters Winter.
ENCE hit rock bottom following changes
Only nine organizations had been able to maintain a place in the top 30 since mid-2018 as of two weeks ago, and from last Monday that list has been down to just seven names after North briefly dropped out and ENCE lost their long-lasting residency there following two lineup changes and a winless month.
The Finns signed Joonas "doto" Forss and picked up Tuomas "SADDYX" Louhimaa on loan in November after losing Jani "Aerial" Jussila and Jere "sergej" Salo. The former is taking a medical leave of absence, while the latter, who was named the 13th best player of 2019, decided to step down from the lineup and complete his military service due to motivation issues.
Still with sergej, ENCE went out in last place of IEM Beijing-Haidan after losses to Astralis and BIG. Shortly after the second change, the Finnish squad also went out of DreamHack Masters Winter in 13th-16th place despite close maps against Complexity and Cloud9.
Milan "Striker" Švejda contributed to this story.
(Disclaimer: HLTV.org and the Astralis Group)
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev
Timur 'buster' Tulepov
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras
Robin 'robiin' Sjögren
Max 'MiGHTYMAX' Heath
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
Ross 'RossR' Rooney
Erik 'penny' Penny
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveira
Tuomas 'SADDYX' Louhimaa
Justin 'jks' Savage
Simon 'Sico' Williams
Issa 'ISSAA' Murad
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Andrew 'kaze' Khong
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